Alan Wake (2016 film)
Alan Wake is a psychological horror action-adventure movie directed by by Christopher Nolan, produced by Emma Thomas and co-written by Nolan and David Goyer. It is based on the video game of the same name which was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. In a highly unusual move, Nolan cast the same motion capture actors and voice talent from the original game. Nolan intended to make the movie as faithful as possible to the original source material. Nolan, a fan of the game, bought the rights shortly after its release in 2010. Alan Wake's première was held in Los Angeles on November 16, 2016; its wide release to both conventional and IMAX theaters began on November 18, 2016. A box office success, Alan Wake grossed over $800 million worldwide. The home video market also had strong results, with $54 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales. Alan Wake opened to acclaim from critics, who praised its story, score, and cast. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. The story follows best-selling thriller novelist Alan Wake, as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington, all while experiencing events from the plot in his latest novel, which he cannot remember writing, coming to life. Plot Alan Wake (Ilkka Villa) (voiced by Matthew Porretta) is a best-selling psychological thriller author, but has been suffering from a two-year stretch of writer's block. He and his wife Alice travel to the small mountain town of Bright Falls in the state of Washington for a short vacation on the advice of Alice and his friend and agent Barry Wheeler. Before arrival, Alan has a nightmare about shadowy figures who tried to harm him before an ethereal figure interrupts his dream and teaches him how to use light to fight the shadows. On their arrival, Alan goes to retrieve the keys and map to their rented cabin from Carl Stucky, the cabin's landlord, but he is visited by a mysterious old woman, who tells him that Stucky had fallen ill and she was entrusted to give Alan the keys. After Alan leaves, Stucky is shown trying to catch up to him and give him the real keys. Alan and Alice arrive at a cabin on an island in the middle of Cauldron Lake. As they unpack, Alan finds that Alice arranged this trip to try to break his writer's block, scheduling him to see a Bright Falls psychologist named Dr. Hartman and leaving a typewriter in the cabin for him. Alan is infuriated and takes a short walk, but runs back when Alice cries for help. He returns to the cabin just as Alice is being dragged into the lake's waters by a mysterious force. Alan dives into the water after her, blacking out as he submerges. Alan regains consciousness a week later, apparently having driven his car off the road, but with no memory of how he got there. He starts to head back towards town, but his progress is hampered by shadowy figures that try to kill him. He observes a strange figure in a diving suit who reminds him of his earlier dream and how to fight the shadows with light. Alan fights through the shadows while finding pages of a manuscript titled Departure with his name on the by-line, a work he had not written. Eventually making it to town, Alan tries to alert Sheriff Sarah Barker of his wife's disappearance, but Sarah states that there has been no island or cabin in Cauldron lake for years after it sunk following a volcanic eruption years prior. Sarah contacts the FBI to investigate Alice's disappearance, while Alan arranges for Barry to come and help. Alan receives a call from a man purporting to be Alice's kidnapper, demanding the pages of Departure in exchange for her. Meeting at a state park, Alan is about to turn over the pages when the man is consumed by a dark tornado and Alan is knocked out. He awakes in Barry and Dr. Hartman's care in the lodge overlooking Cauldron Lake. Dr. Hartman listens to Alan's story, and believes he is suffering a psychotic break, everything that he's witnessed part of his imagination. Alan attempts to escape the lodge as the shadowy force starts to attack it; while running, Alan finds evidence that Dr. Hartman is aware of the supernatural events surrounding the lake. Barry helps Alan to escape the lodge before the shadow subsumes it and all those inside. Returning to town, they find the FBI have arrived, and attempt to arrest him, before the shadowy forces intervene, allowing Alan and Barry to escape. Alan and Barry start to learn about the past of Cauldron Lake from other townsfolk. They believe an entity called the Dark Presence is trapped within the lake and is trying to escape by using its powers to turn fiction into reality. It has previously tried this with a writer known as Thomas Zane—the figure in the diving suit—but Zane was able to resist its will and died during the eruption that sank the island. The Dark Presence has grown strong enough to start to influence the townspeople and create the forces that have chased Alan. That night, as Alan and Barry take shelter, they get drunk on moonshine, and Alan starts to recall memories of being forced to write Departure during the prior week, and realizes that the Dark Presence is now trying to use his writings to escape. Sarah and the FBI arrive to arrest the two, but the shadowy figures drag the FBI agents away. Sarah, now convinced of the Dark Presence, helps Alan and Barry to find Cynthia Weaver, a hermit that fears the Dark Presence. She shows them to the "Well-Lit Room" and to a weapon that is able to defeat the Dark Presence: the Clicker, a simple light switch that has been infused with the power of Alan's writings. Alan returns to Cauldron Lake alone to face the Dark Presence, using his newfound ability to affect reality with his thoughts aided by the Clicker. The Dark Presence is dispelled but there is no sign of Alice, and Alan believes that to maintain balance, he must give himself to the lake. As Alan sinks below the waters, Alice climbs safely out of the lake. Within the depths of the lake, Alan finds himself in the cabin, and realises that Departure is not yet finished, and turns back to the typewriter to continue the story and write his own means to be free of the lake. He comments to himself that "It's not a lake—''it's an ocean." Cast *Ilkka Villi as Alan Wake *Joanna Järvenpää as Alice Wake Production Casting Marketing and release ''Bright Falls web series A promotional live-action tie-in web series/miniseries titled Bright Falls was made available a few weeks before the game's release on the web and the Xbox Live service. The six episodes of Bright Falls were co-written and directed by Phillip Van, and they serve as a prequel to the game, set in the eponymous town before Alan Wake arrives there. The main character in the series is Jake Fischer (played by Christopher Forsyth), a newspaper reporter who visits the town on business. A number of characters are shared between Bright Falls and Alan Wake, including diner waitress Rose, Dr. Emil Hartman, radio host Pat Maine and Alan Wake himself, who appears briefly in the final episode. The actors who play these characters also serve as voice actors and physical models for the characters in the game. The web series begins as Jake Fischer arrives in Bright Falls to interview Dr. Hartman on his new book, an assignment from his publication agency. After a series of encounters with local townspeople, Jake soon finds himself the victim of long periods of lost time and black outs. He finds himself waking up in the middle of a forest and other locations where he had not been previously. He also develops an aversion towards lights and daytime. The longer he stays in Bright Falls, the more violent his behaviour becomes. When he realises this, he tries to duct-tape himself to a refrigerator and recording videotape himself in his sleep to see what might be causing the behaviour. It is implied that he is being completely taken over by the Dark Presence, to the point of murdering several people. He then vanishes, just before the arrival of Alan and Alice Wake. Reaction Box office Critical reception The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 73% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 67 reviews, with the critical consensus that Alan Wake is one of the few successful movies adapted from a video game. Distribution Home media Category:2015 films Category:Abandoned buildings and structures in fiction Category:Action-adventure films Category:Amnesia in fiction Category:Darkness in fiction Category:Dreams in fiction Wake, Alan Category:Islands in fiction Category:Monsters in fiction Category:Psychological horror films Category:Films based on video games Category:Spirit possession in fiction Category:Video game franchises introduced in 2010 Category:Video films set in psychiatric hospitals Category:Video films set in Washington (state)